| p:abstract
| - William Charles Virdon (born June 9, 1931 in Hazel Park, Michigan) is a former outfielder, manager and coach in Major League Baseball. A premier defensive outfielder during his playing days as a center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates, Virdon also had a long tenure in the major leagues as a manager, with the Pirates, New York Yankees, Houston Astros, and Montreal Expos . He was the American League Manager of the Year in REDIRECT Template:Baseball Year, his only full season working for the Yankees of George Steinbrenner. Virdon initially signed with the Yankees, but he never played for the big league club. As a minor league prospect, he was traded to the Cardinals in a multi-player deal before the REDIRECT Template:Baseball Year season for veteran outfielder Enos Slaughter, now a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. After one more year of seasoning in the minors, Virdon joined the Cardinals in REDIRECT Template:Baseball Year and was named National League Rookie of the Year. He was traded to Pittsburgh in May REDIRECT Template:Baseball Year.A left-handed batter, Virdon's career batting average was . 267 with 91 home runs during his 1,583-game NL career. He was the starting center fielder on the REDIRECT Template:Baseball Year world champion Pirates, batting . 241 in seven World Series games. His ground ball in Game 7 took a bad hop and struck Yankees shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat, enabling Virdon to reach base and the Pirates to mount a furious rally in a game eventually won by Bill Mazeroski's dramatic home run.As a manager, he led the Pirates to the REDIRECT Template:Baseball Year NL East title, but the Buccos dropped the NLCS to the Cincinnati Reds when Pittsburgh pitcher Bob Moose unleashed a wild pitch in the final inning of Game 5, allowing the winning run to score. His REDIRECT Template:Baseball Year Astros won the NL West championship, but fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in a five-game NLCS. His career managerial record, over all or parts of 13 seasons, was 995-921 . He also served three different terms as a Pirates coach. He has the unusual distinction of having been replaced on two separate occasions by the manager he replaced; in Montreal and in Pittsburgh . Currently Bill lives in Springfield, Missouri, and serves as a special outfield instructor for the Pirates during spring training. (en)
|
![[RDF Data]](http://dbpedia.org/statics/sw-cube.png)
